Educator

I have taught university courses in American history and the history of photography for more than two decades, including service as a part-time faculty member in Quinnipiac University’s Department of History and Geography since 2007. I also lead collection-based instruction and professional workshops for students, archivists, librarians, and researchers.

Teaching approach

My classrooms are built on respect, trust, curiosity, and active participation. I ask students to examine how historical narratives are made, whose perspectives they preserve, and what changes when we place photographs, manuscripts, films, art, music, and artifacts in conversation with each other.

Students learn by doing: close reading, collaborative analysis, debate, presentations, and small-group work with primary sources. The goal is not simply to absorb information, but to develop the confidence and evidence-based habits needed to interpret the past critically.

Courses and subjects

  • History of photography
  • United States history and cultural history
  • The Western world in modern times
  • Photography as historical evidence
  • Archives, visual culture, and material culture

Collection-based instruction

At Yale, I partner with faculty to design sessions that connect course questions with original materials. These meetings help students slow down, attend to physical evidence, and understand how description, provenance, arrangement, and institutional collecting shape the sources they encounter.

Selected workshops

  • Improving the Research Experience: A Workshop for Graduate Students in Western American History, Western History Association, 2021–2025.
  • Identification of 19th Century Photos, New England Archivists, 2015.
  • Photography History and Formats Workshop, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 2015.
  • Photographic Fitness: Basic Approaches Toward Administering and Preserving Photographic Material, New England Archivists, 2013.

Education

  • PhD in History, University of Memphis, 2008
  • MA in Library and Information Studies (Archives Administration), University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2003
  • MA in History, University of Memphis, 1994
  • BA in History, Humboldt State University, 1993